Automobile and light commercial vehicle sales in Turkey, amounting to 152,050 units, decreased by 23.5% in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period of 2021.
The Automotive Distributors Association (ODD) on Monday published the "Automobile and Light Commercial Vehicle Market Evaluation Report" for the January-March period as well as the March data.
While automobile sales decreased by 25.3% to 116,834 units, the light commercial vehicle market contracted by 16.5% to 35,216 units.
The decrease in sales accelerated in March. The automobile and light commercial vehicle market decreased by 33.4% to 64,267 units over the last month.
Automobile sales, in particular, decreased by 34.3% to 50,173, and the light commercial vehicle market decreased by 29.8% to 14,094.
The average 10-year March sales of the automobile and light commercial vehicle market decreased by 7.3%. This rate was 5.8% in automobiles and 12.2% in light commercial vehicles.
When the automobile market is analyzed by segments, 89.6% of the vehicles sold in the first quarter of the year consisted of vehicles in the A, B and C segments.
C segment cars had a share of 46.4% with 54,183 units, while B segment cars had a share of 42.7% with 49,928 units.
In the said period, SUVs were mostly preferred according to body types. SUVs accounted for 41% of total sales, followed by sedans with 34.5% and H/B cars with 22.7%.
Looking at the engine types, gasoline cars were preferred the most with 71.7% followed by diesel with 15.4%, hybrid vehicles with 9.6% and autogas vehicles with 2.4%. The number of electric cars sold in the first quarter was 1,073.
In the January-March period, 88.5% of the sales were cars under 1600 cc, 0.8% were cars in the 1600-2000 cc range, and 0.2% were cars over 2000 cc. Some 78.2% of the cars sold were automatic and 21.8% were manual transmissions.
When the light commercial vehicle market is analyzed by body type, 76.6% of the sales were van-type vehicles, while those with the pickup truck body type are in second place with 12%.
Meanwhile, the country’s auto sector has already made a downward revision in its 2022 sales targets due to the supply bottlenecks created by the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Industry representatives had predicted at the beginning of 2022 that the market would exceed last year's sales. The automobile and light commercial vehicle market was at 737,000 units in 2021.
However, it is almost impossible to reach this target due to both supply problems and the increase in vehicle prices.
